Cement is all around us.

The climate impact of industries will grow as other emissions shrink.Today, industry emits about a quarter of the EU’s

At the 2015 Paris Climate Conference the world agreed to reach net-zero emissions by mid-century. This goal requires every sector to drastically reduce its carbon footprint and practically eliminate all CO2 emissions within the next thirty years. This timeframe coincides with the investment cycle in energy and resource intensive industries. So to ensure industries such as cement have the means available to fulfill their obligations, important levers have to be pulled today.

Rebuilding an emission-free Europe will require low carbon cement.

Cement production and use emits more CO2 than air travel.

CO2. While the climate transformation in the power (renewables) and transport (electrification) sectors is already underway, industry has largely been shielded from fundamental action, which leaves it remarkably exposed as climate and political pressures mount. With fossil coal and gas power plants being replaced with clean energy sources, industry sites will become the remaining large CO2 point sources.

5% of global emissions

8% of global emissions

Did you know?

1 ton cement 0.9 tons CO2

Cement is the key ingredient in the construction of homes, roads, and to secure essential infrastructures, such as wind farms. As the demand for these and other climate technologies increases and living standards improve in the emerging economies, more cement will be needed over the coming decades.

The EU is the third largest producer of cement. The sector provides over 38 thousand direct jobs in the EU, with additional millions of jobs in the construction business. Cement is a primarily locally produced and traded product. As we will need cement to build a net-zero emission economy, it is crucial that we also ensure cement production itself fulfills these ambitions. Doing so will be essential to ensure products we use do not cause negative climate effects elsewhere, and to safeguard jobs and economic benefits associated with an essential industry.

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Concrete, the primary product of cement, is the 2nd most used material in the world after water.

Producing 1 ton of cement,emits 0.9 tonnes of CO2

Climate action in the cement industry: Factsheet

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Climate change is caused by more than just the burning of fossil fuels.

Reducing cement’s climate impact requires simultaneous actions from production to use and end of life.

fossil heat sources with burning waste and sustainable biomass, or through electrification and hydrogen use.

some clinker with alternative materials, such as volcanic ash, ground bottle glass, and industrial waste products.

cement in buildings with increased use of timber and alternative cementitious materials in construction. the use of cement through new building norms and

standards enabling a more efficient resource use in construction projects.

concrete from demolished structures as an aggregate, for example in road construction to substitute basic materials such as rocks.

recovered cement through smart crushers to reduce need for new cement production.

Producing cement is based on fusing limestone and other raw materials into clinker. During this process, CO2 is released from the limestone and minerals. These emissions are independent from the fuel combustion used for heat and represent “process emissions” – emissions that are integral to the making of cement.

The heating of limestone results in CaO and CO2. 40% of CO2

comes from the burning of fuels heating the kiln.

improving resource and energy efficiency

using alternative materials

establishing stricter end of life separation and recycling

developing new, innovative and clean production technologies

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Replace

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the way cement is produced to stop CO2 from being emitted to the atmosphere.

ReduceRecycle

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These actions include:

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.Reinvent

While all described actions need to happen, none can solve the challenge of eliminating CO2 emissions from cement production single-handedly. There are physical and technical limitations as well as issues of sustainability related to all levers of action.

Capturing CO2 emissions from cement-making and storing them deep underground is currently the only way to prevent cement’s “process emissions” from reaching the atmosphere. Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is a crucial reinvention of cement making that can complement the limitations of scale, costs and deployment time associated with other tools - which are nevertheless needed to be developed in parallel.

Climate measures need to have a positive environmental and climatic impact. This requires the sustainable sourcing of substitution materials and cement alternatives, as well as the careful consideration of their overall carbon footprint. Also indirect emissions, such as emissions from chemicals required to treat timber or energy related emissions in the production of hydrogen to replace onsite fossil fuel use need to be taken into account.

Sustainability is key. The climate effect of any ‘solution’ needs to be fully accounted for.

No single solution will be big or quick enough to prevent CO2 emissions from cement production.

Beginning cement’s path to net-zero today

would require cutting a forest

Replacing

1.5 times the size of India.

25% of cement used in construction with timber

CO2 capture at a cement plantCO2 can be captured at a cement plant through either post– or oxyfuel-combustion technologies. Novel capture technologies and production innovations will reduce costs and improve efficiencies.

CO2 negative cementCombining sustainable biomass for heat generation and CCS needed for process emissions provides industry with net-negative cement products that have actually

taken CO2 from the atmosphere.

Through CCS, cement has the ability to contribute to a net-zero emissions economy. After its capture, the CO2 is transported via truck, train, ship or pipeline to an offshore storage facility. Here the CO2 is permanently trapped in kilometres deep rock formations.

Never reaching the atmosphere

What Reinvention looks like. Implenting solutions that we can employ now is essential

to avoid further delay in climate action and reliance on the removal of CO2 from the atmosphere in the future. Showcasing that deep decarbonisation is possible is a conversation-changer and sets new standards for industry. It creates new markets and opportunties and incentivises innovation in other measures and sectors, including alternative materials and recycling.

Did you know?

When CO2 is stored in formations underground it gradually binds with surrounding minerals and effectively re-fossilises, i.e. becomes rock again.

With regional & national governments in support, a demonstration capture plant can be up and running by the early 2020s if action is taken today. Sharing an open CO2 network that links emission point sources with permanent offshore storage will reduce the cost of stopping emissions, allow more industries to make deep cuts in emissions and help transform high carbon employment into low carbon investment hubs.

CCS can play a central role in reinventing the way in which we produce the basic materials of society. It is needed across other process industries, such as a chemicals and steel. As a three-step process from capture to transport and storage only the first step is distinct to each source point. This means that developing a shared CO2 transport and storage network can benefit industry regions across Europe. As infrastructural projects take time, beginning the implementation today is essential for a CO2 Network and CCS to be available at scale by 2030.

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For more information and references, go to www.bellona.org to read our report “An Industry’s Guide to Climate Action”.

ana@bellona.org

justus@bellona.org

Norway’s full-scale CCS project links an offshore storage site with a cement and waste-to-energy plant. Storage is open for CO2 from other European point sources. Scotland’s open access CCS project

seeks to be low-cost and low-risk, designed to be built quickly and cost-effectively by taking advantage of existing oil and gas infrastructure and a well-understood offshore CO2 storage site.

INNOVATIVE CEMENT PROJECTS

The Port of Rotterdam is building a backbone infrastructure to serve as an open, accessible CCS transport and storage system to which various industries and companies in the region and beyond can connect with.

ROTTERDAM

SCOTLAND

NORWAY

The European CO2 Storage Directive regulates CCS projects and ensures strict environmental and monitoring requirements are met. The Innovation Fund supports innovative, effective and scalable climate technologies. The Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) funds projects of common interest (PCI) that include cross-border CO2 transport infrastructures. Additional national and regional funding mechanisms exist, and can be made available.

The development of CO2 transport and storage is a crucial part of climate action for cement and other energy intensive industries.

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Developing of innovative capture technologies at cement plants, such as the LEILAC (Low Emissions Intensity Lime & Cement) and the CEMCAP project enable an easier, i.e. cheaper, capture, of cement flue gases. In most cases, they also increase resource efficiency.

Europe is ready. From demonstration to scale.

Connecting the dots: Storage can be available in the early 2020s